1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the provision of content (and, in particular, data intensive content such as video content) over a network. In particular, the invention relates to the simultaneous provision of different sets of content from a content provider and, even more particularly, to the simultaneous provision of different sets of content that are tailored to the characteristics of anticipated observers of the content.
2. Related Art
Digital computer networks have become a significant medium for communicating content. However, the physical apparatus (xe2x80x9chardwarexe2x80x9d) currently used to implement digital computers and the interconnections between digital computers in a network have limited bandwidth (i.e., capacity to transmit data per unit time). Bandwidth limitations restrict the amount and/or type of content that a content provider can provide at any one time.
In general, content communicated over a digital computer network can be text, video, audio or some combination of the three. Of those three types of content, the representation of video content (as used herein, a sequence of visual images over time) by a digital computer requires the most amount of data by far. The data intensive nature of video content has limited the ability to transmit video content over a digital computer network. In particular, the ability to broadcast video content over a digital computer network is currently rudimentary at best. The ability to provide video-on-demand over a digital computer network is even more limited.
For content providers, it can be desirable to provide content so that content (xe2x80x9csecondary contentxe2x80x9d) is provided in addition to the content (xe2x80x9cprimary contentxe2x80x9d) that is intended to be the primary focus of the content being provided. For example, it can be desirable to insert advertisements (secondary content) into a broadcast of an entertainment program, such as a sports event or movie (primary content). It can further be desirable to tailor the secondary content so that different secondary content is provided to different observers. In particular, it can be desirable to tailor secondary content in accordance with one or more characteristics of anticipated observers of the secondary content. For example, different advertisements may be provided to different observers based upon characteristics of the observers such as, for example, age, sex or occupation.
The provision of secondary content during breaks in the provision of primary content, where the secondary content is not tailored as described above (i.e., so that only a single set of secondary content is provided by the content provider), generally does not exacerbate network bandwidth limitations. However, providing secondary content at the same time as the primary content is provided does exacerbate network bandwidth limitations, since the required data transmission capacity is increased. Network bandwidth limitations are also exacerbated when, during breaks in the provision of primary content, multiple sets of secondary content are provided at the same time (as may be necessitated if tailored secondary content is being provided), since the required bandwidth is multiplied by the number of sets of secondary content being provided. Particularly if it is desired to simultaneously provide many sets of secondary content (whether at the same time as the provision of primary content or during breaks in the provision of primary content), as would be necessary to enable provision of highly tailored secondary content, network bandwidth limitations can present an insurmountablexe2x80x94or, at least, an expensivexe2x80x94obstacle to overcome. This is especially so when the content includes video content: currently, it is not feasible to provide video content in which primary content is supplemented with secondary content tailored to any appreciable degree. Further, even as improvements in data transmission infrastructure (hardware and software) increase available bandwidth, the ability to provide tailored content will be limited as compared to the ability to provide content without such tailoring.
In addition to situations in which primary content is augmented by providing secondary content, there are other situations in which it is desirable for a content provider to simultaneously provide different sets of content to different observers. A content provider may desire to provide multiple sets of primary content at the same time. A content-on-demand system would require such capability. It may also be desirable for a broadcast system to have such capability as well. As above, such capability would be advantageous to enable a content provider to tailor the content being provided in accordance with the characteristics of anticipated observers of the content. As discussed above, current data transmission infrastructure does not make systems including such capability feasible.
According to the invention, a xe2x80x9cprimaryxe2x80x9d content providing site effects the simultaneous provision of different sets of content to one or more content display sites by transmitting xe2x80x9chandoffxe2x80x9d instructions that cause one or more xe2x80x9cproxyxe2x80x9d content providing sites to provide content to the content display site(s). (Content may or may not be provided directly from the primary content providing site.) Since content is provided from more than one content providing site, and since the handoff instructions require the transmission of far less data than required for the data representing the content being provided, the invention enables a primary content providing site to effect the simultaneous provision of different sets of content in a manner that ameliorates the bandwidth limitations associated with a conventional content distribution scheme in which all of the sets of content are provided from a single content providing site.
Since the amount of data required to represent video content is very large compared to the amount of data required to represent audio or text content, a particular advantage of the invention is that a content provider can simultaneously provide different video content to viewers at different content display sites without degradation of the quality of the video display presented at each content display site. Further, since content is provided from multiple sites, a large number of different sets of content can be provided simultaneously, thus enabling a content provider wide latitude to tailor the content provided to each content display site (i.e., many different sets of content can be provided) and, in particular, to tailor the content in accordance with the characteristics of the anticipated observers at a content display site.
The invention can be used in a variety of ways. For example, the invention can be used to simultaneously provide different sets of secondary content (e.g., different advertisements) to different content observers during breaks in the provision of a set of primary content (e.g., an entertainment program such as a sports event or movie). The invention can also be used to provide secondary content at the same time as primary content is provided (to enable, for example, display of the secondary content at the same time as the primary content). The invention can also be used to simultaneously provide different sets of primary content. The invention can be used with both broadcast and content-on-demand content distribution systems.
Generally, the invention can be used to facilitate the distribution of content from content providers to content observers via any type of network. More particularly, the invention can be advantageously used to distribute content via a digital computer network, such as the Internet (and, even more particularly, via the World Wide Web). The invention can also be used to distribute content via a cable television network.
In one embodiment of the invention, content is provided to a content display site by: i) providing primary content from a primary content providing site to the content display site; ii) transmitting a set of one or more instructions (handoff instructions) from the primary content providing site; and iii) providing secondary content (that is different from the primary content) from a proxy content providing site (that is different from the primary content providing site) to the content display site in accordance with the set of instructions.
In another embodiment of the invention, different sets of content are simultaneously provided to a plurality of content display sites by: i) determining, for each content display site, the content providing site from which a set of content will be transmitted to the content display site; and ii) transmitting one or more sets of one or more instructions from a primary content providing site, each set of instructions causing a proxy content providing site to provide a set of content to one or more content display sites in accordance with the set of instructions, wherein the different sets of content are provided from at least two different content providing sites.
The determination of which of multiple sets of content are to be provided to each of the content display sites can be made in any appropriate manner. As indicated above, the determination can depend upon characteristics of the anticipated observers at a content display site, such as age, sex or occupation. The determination can also depend upon other factors, such as the topographical proximity of particular content providing sites to the content display site.
The determination of which content providing site to provide a set of content from (when more than one content providing site can provide that set of content) can also be made in any appropriate manner. For example, the determination can be made based on a topographical analysis of the relevant network sites. The topographical analysis may determine, for example, the topographical proximity of a content display site to several content providing sites, a content providing site being favored in accordance with its topographical proximity.